Sunday 17th.
At noon on Sunday after a very tiring night, the front door ringing woke us and we heard Debbie answer it.
A deep, authoritative voice boomed, “Good afternoon miss, we have reason to believe Miss Aleesha Kennedy lives here.”
“She does” Debbie answered politely, “there’s nothing wrong is there?”
“We are afraid there might be Miss, may we come in?”
As Debbie held the door open for them she banged my door loudly and cried “Brian!”
“I’ll be right there” I shouted hurriedly dressing as Tracey did the same, then we made our way to the living room where we found Marcie, Rachel, Debbie and Lynda seated around the table.
In my chair sat Sergeant MacDonald and in Aleesha’s chair sat PC Kelly who immediately got up to let Tracey sit.
I passed a lot of very solemn faces as I made my way to stand behind Marcie, patting PC Kelly’s back as I passed as he stood behind Tracey.
“Now,” the sergeant began turning a few pages of his notebook, “are we all here?”
“Yes, we are.” Marcie held back her tears expecting the worst.
I placed my hand on her shoulder and she immediately raised her hand to clasp mine as the sergeant continued.
“It is my painful duty to inform you that a young female, who we believe to be Miss Aleesha Kennedy of this address, was found apparently drowned in the River Forth yesterday morning.”
Every one of the girls bowed their heads and wept uncontrollably and I felt tears begin to fill my eyes as I squeezed Marcie’s shoulder.
“We also have reason to believe” the sergeant continued. “Miss Kennedy was a victim of her own hand in that sometime between midnight on Friday and 2 am Saturday she was seen by one of the tollmen on the Road Bridge - alone and obviously very distressed.”
“A post-mortem examination showed her to have an inordinate amount of alcohol in her system.”
“But,” Marcie sobbed, “Aleesha didn’t drink.”
Sergeant MacDonald, obviously had much experience dealing with similar situations, sympathised, “I can only read what it says here, Madam.”
“Now, firstly, could one of you please come with us to identify her, and can you give me a note of her next of Kin?”
Marcie leaned back, opened the drawer and handed her ledger over her shoulder for me to locate Aleesha’s entry.
“I’ll come down,” Marcie sobbed.
“I’ll drive you,” locating the entry before handing her the open book indicating Aleesha’s father’s address.
Marcie glanced at the entry and handed the book to the sergeant who noted the details, “We can take you and bring you back if you would prefer?”
Marcie squeezed my hand and asked “Brian, would you mind?”
“No problem.” I answered. She asked Tracey - she didn’t mind either.
“Now,” Sergeant MacDonald continued, “we won’t take up any more of your time.
May we see her room to evaluate any possessions she may have, and maybe we can find a reason for this tragic incident for our report to the Coroner and Procurator Fiscal?”
“Sure.” Marcie rising patted Rachel’s hand silently motioning her to comfort Debbie whose tear-stained angel-face was torn with confusion as she sat in stunned silence.
As I followed Marcie, Sergeant MacDonald and PC Kelly to the door I winked to Tracey sighing “I’ll try not to be long.”
“Be as long as it takes,” she replied, “I’ll see if there’s anything I can do here and then head home, okay?”
“Okay.” I said hugging her but she couldn’t turn towards me because Debbie was gripping her hand so tightly that all feeling had gone as the circulation was being cut off.
I breathed a long sigh as I crossed the hallway to where PC Kelly stood at the entrance to Aleesha’s room. I put my hand on his shoulder as we surveyed the room, which was slightly larger than mine but had very little in it.
To my right behind the door there was a single bed, no larger than mine neatly made.
Just beyond it there was a wardrobe in the corner by the window and a large cardboard box, which resembled the one I had for my dirty washing, this one was empty.
Marcie opened each drawer in a unit to the left of the window, which contained several blouses, jumpers and underwear all neatly pressed and folded while Sergeant MacDonald looked at an array of framed photographs of assorted African people spread out upon a writing desk.
The only things, which looked out of place in this very tidy room, were several textbooks and manuals, which littered the floor beneath the window as if they were tossed in a frenzy from the desk.
Kelly turned his head to me and quietly said. “We meet again, sir.”
I sighed as the sergeant opened the desk drawer asking; “Do you two know each other?”
PC Kelly turned to me again and replied “Actually sir. We don’t.”
He extended his right hand across his chest “The name’s Gerard Kelly.”
I removed my right hand from his shoulder and placed it in his saying. “Brian...” just as Sergeant MacDonald cried “Bingo.” which got everyone’s attention.
He took a letter sealed in a pale blue airmail envelope, which was stamped and addressed to Kenya from the drawer placing it solemnly upon the desk, then lifted a scholarship certificate on university headed card from the desk.
Written on it were the titles of six subjects with ‘pass’ beside them with grades A and B, but one had ‘Fail grade D’ written in red.
“This could be the answer?” the sergeant sighed laying it next to the letter.
Kelly then noticed a waste paper basket with a few crumpled pieces of paper and stooped to pick them out.
“Dear Miss Kennedy,” he read unravelling a piece of university headed paper.
“It is with deep regret we have to inform you that you have not achieved a pass grade in one of your assessments and in view of this we may have to postpone graduation until a future date pending appeal or rescheduled examination.”
He handed the letter to the sergeant unravelling a second paper, of lightweight airmail paper reading “My dearest father, Please forgive me, but I have to remain in Scotland for another term as unfortunately I have failed…it ends there.”
He handed the letter to his sergeant, re-reading it as Marcie slumped heavily onto the bed holding one hand over her heart.
Covering her mouth with the other hand she moaned “Oh my God.”
Sergeant MacDonald raising his head from the letters turned to Marcie asking, “Did Miss Kennedy speak of her father?”
“Not really,” Marcie sobbed, “she told me she was frightened of him and couldn’t go home with anything less than a diploma, but, I had no idea what one fail meant to her. The poor kid. If only she had spoken to us maybe we could have helped her like we helped Debbie.
If only she had said.”
“I’m very sorry, madam, but this confirms our suspicions.
I suppose we’d better go and make sure it is her. Okay?”
“We’ll take these two letters and this one for her father he may want us to read it to him over the phone? If he doesn’t we’ll post it, okay?”
“Okay.” Marcie nodded.
“You may wish to put a coat on, Madam?”
“No thanks.” her hushed reply.
“Okay, if you come with me madam I’ll fill you in with all the details while my constable will go with the gentleman encase he gets lost.” Marcie nodded as she stood.
“Okay, sir? He asked me.
“Sure.” I answered as we all made our way silently to the cars.
“Would you like me to drive?” Kelly asked as I stopped to unlock the passenger door.
“No thanks, I’ll manage,” I answered going around to the other door.
Within a few moments we were following the police car into the city centre.
To lighten the situation I said “That’s the same police car I saw you in yesterday morning when you
flew past me heading towards...”
I suddenly stopped as I realised he would have been heading towards the Forth Bridge. “Was it you who found her?”
“I was one of the first on the scene,” he answered, “when the body came ashore at South Queensferry.
I didn’t know you lived with her or I probably would have stopped and asked you to follow us.
Tell me how many people live with you?”
“Yesterday there were five.” I answered.
“When that blonde girl opened the door this morning” he continued,
“I knew I had seen her somewhere before.
I’ve got an incredible memory for faces, but it sometimes takes a while to remember the details.”
“Then I saw the dark-haired girl I became confused because I hadn’t seen them together.
It wasn’t until you walked into the room that it clicked ‘the princess from the play-park’ and ‘The Waverley Weeper.”
I chuckled at his descriptions as he continued,
“You must have a whale of a time living with five beauties?”
“It’s actually quite hellish living there with them” I smiled,
“You never know what they’re going to do next and they’re all pretty weird, except the one you gave your seat to.”
“The thin blonde one?” he asked.
“That one is my fiancée who comes through from Glasgow at the weekend.”
“Oh,” he laughed, “What does she think of you living with all these women?”
“She wasn’t too happy at first,” I laughed, “but she’s warming to the idea now.”
“I’ll bet she isn’t,” he laughed.
We pulled up outside a large sombre building when we remembered the purpose of our visit as I locked the car then followed Sergeant MacDonald and Marcie inside.
Sergeant MacDonald pointing to a large bench seat asked us to wait while he stood at the reception window.
I put my arm around Marcie’s shoulders as she shivered.
“I should have brought a coat,” she sobbed, “It’s freezing in here.”
As I cuddled her I had to bite my lip to stop me saying, “It’s like a morgue in here,” because this was the city morgue.
Sergeant MacDonald beckoned me to the window.
“Could you give a brief description of Miss Kennedy, Sir?” he asked.
“Sure,” I answered, “She’s twenty years of age, quite slim, black, with short curly black hair.”
“How black is she?” the assistant asked.
“How black can you get?” I snapped not amused. “Kenyan African Black.”
The attendant looked scornfully at Sergeant MacDonald as he leafed through a carded file picking one card out “Okay” he said reading it.
“If you would take a seat I’ll call you through.”
I walked back to where Kelly was holding Marcie’s hand, patting it gently. Sitting I put my arm around her shoulder as before, while the sergeant crouched before her.
“Now,” he began, “What they’re going to do is arrange a viewing.
It is quite simple.
If you can positively identify Miss Kennedy you say ‘Yes’ but if, for any reason, you cannot positively state it is her say ‘No’. Okay?”
Marcie nodded as a door opened and the attendant called the sergeant.
“Okay, we’re on.” straightening up we all rose and were led to a small dimly lit room with a large covered window facing us.
Marcie stood at the centre of the window while I stayed at her left side with my arm around her shoulder as Sergeant MacDonald stood at her right side and Kelly stayed by the door behind us.
The room was deathly quiet as we stood facing the window for a few seconds before the louver blinds parted to reveal a table with a starched white cotton sheet under which the outline of a female body could clearly be seen.
The attendant moved from the side of the window where he had obviously opened the blinds and stood at the head of the body, and with a slight nod from the sergeant he solemnly lifted the top end of the sheet to reveal the head and shoulders.
My gaze was diverted from the corpse as Marcie suddenly turned around weeping into my shoulder.
I wrapped my arms around her as the sergeant asked, “Is this Miss Kennedy?”
I looked over Marcie’s shoulder to look at what was unmistakably Aleesha, whose expressionless features belied the torment she must have gone through.
I answered “Aye, that’s her.” as Marcie confirmed, “Yes, it is.”
“Now,” the sergeant said making a ‘thumbs up’ to the attendant as he replaced the sheet and closed the blinds.
“Do you need a couple of minutes by yourselves?”
Marcie shook her head. “Would you like a cup of tea, madam?” She shook it again.
“Okay” he quietly stated, “We’ll sort out the details here, and when we’ve contacted her father we will call you and let you know his decision, okay?”
“Okay.” Marcie sobbed.
“Now madam. Is there anything further we can do for you?
Would you like us to take you home? Anything, just ask?”
“No thanks, sergeant,” Marcie sobbed, “Brian, can you take me home?”
“Of course.” hugging her as tightly as I could while the sergeant confirmed if I was okay by raising his thumb and mouthing silently “You okay, Sir?”
I raised my thumb in confirmation as Kelly opened the door and we slowly walked back to the car leaving the police officers at the desk.
I overheard Kelly mournfully say; “Sometimes I really hate this job, Sarge.”
“You get used to it Son,” the sergeant sighed, “Unfortunately, you get used to it.”
All the way home Marcie sat with her left hand over her eyes as her right hand covering my left hand on the gearstick and every few seconds she sniffed as she inhaled.
“If only she had told us she was having problems,” she moaned,
“Maybe we could have done something to help her.”
She kept repeating, “If only she’d said.”
I pulled over outside the flat into the spot where Tracey’s white Nissan Micra had been.
I put my arm around Marcie who made for the living room table where we found the girls preparing a meal.
As soon as we entered the room all activity stopped as Marcie took her chair.
She took a deep breath and called out “Could everyone stop what you’re doing.” Nobody was moving anyway.
“Come here, I want to have a serious word with you all.”
Immediately everyone complied and took their seats as I took mine and all our mournful eyes stared at Marcie’s tear-stained face as she took a very deep breath and resumed her air of authority.
“Listen guys” she wagging a menacing finger,
“Aleesha is dead, and she only died because she kept all her problems bottled up inside her instead of talking about things.”
She placed her hand over Debbie’s and squeezed it as she continued.
“I don’t want to interfere in any of your various, mixed up, personal lives, but we’re all friends here, I hope?
If any of you have worries or problems I want you to promise that you’ll come to me and we’ll talk about whatever’s troubling you.”
She pointed her left index finger angrily at me and said, “That includes you and Tracey” she pointed it at Rachel saying “You and Melanie” and then at Debbie and Lynda, “and you two and whoever.
I might not be able to help with anything other than medical advice, but I’ll always listen to any of you, at any time, and either give you my opinion, which you can take or leave, or I’ll try to point you in the direction of someone who can help. Okay?”
She looked round us all as she spoke with sadness and deep concern quivering her voice, she continued looking in the silence, which followed.
Rachel placed her right hand over Marcie’s which still held Debbie’s left hand whispering solemnly
“I promise” we all followed suit and gave a solemn oath.
That entire night we all walked around in a sad silence and went to our beds early as the events of the day had stunned us all.
“That must have been a very sad time for you all?” Emily whispered.
“It was,” I sighed,
“It was more the feeling of disappointment in the air that day.”
“We hadn’t taken the time to understand what Aleesha was going through.
We felt despair at not being able to help her in her hour of need.
Me included – I hadn’t spent any time with her and now she was gone.”
“Aleesha had failed - we all felt we had failed her,” I sniffed,
“It was a very sad time indeed.”